The Curse of Not Knowing
by Temperance Isaack
Summary: Two stories coalesce when Daryl DiNozzo is attacked in Boston. Now, faced with no obvious choices, Tony takes it upon himself to track down her attacker and bring him to justice. RIZZLES, PAST TATE, AND OC PAIRING. SAME SEX COUPLES. IF YOU DON'T LIKE, DON'T READ. VIOLENCE AND RAPE.
1. Chapter 1

He didn't know what to do...

Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo glanced over the sleeping form of his 19 year old daughter, Daryl, ghostly and small in the imposing hospital bed. There was a maze of tubes connected to various parts of her body, obscuring her face. Next to her, a red haired girl sat hunched over on the bed, her fingers intertwined with his daughter's; his heart fluttered at the small gesture of love in the cold lovelessness of the hospital.

Sighing painfully, he put his hands on his head and prayed: something he hadn't done since Catholic school. He knew it wouldn't do any good, but that didn't matter right then.

Across the room, the red haired girl, Jade Scuito-McGee stirred silently. Her cheeks were sticky with dried tears, but she refused to let go of the brunette's hand. Daryl, silent herself, but surrounded by noisy machines, whose job it was to assure the others that she was still breathing, was partially awake. One eye followed the red head with keen interest, while the other drooped deadly to the side. She tried, in vain, to squeeze Jade's hand, but...she couldn't move.

Tony watched the two, his daughter and his best friends' daughter. Originally, he hadn't completely approved; five years ago, when the girls were fourteen years old, Daryl told him what was going on. He'd assumed that they were just best friends, closer than sisters, but...he hadn't expected his only daughter to tell him that she and Jade, she and another girl, had been in a relationship for eight months. Now, five years later, he didn't know how he hadn't seen it sooner. Their eyes when they spoke to each other, softer than satin, were only eyes that came from a love truer than any other.


	2. Something Terrible

A/N that last chapter was more or less a preview/flash forward, in case you were befuddled.

ON TO THE SHOW!

* * *

SEVEN MONTHS EARLIER

Maura glanced at the clock beside her bed. Big red block-letters shouted 4:14! over and over in her mind. She tried to go back to sleep, but if she did that, _he_ came. _He_ washed over her like black paint, and darkened her to the core. She looked at Jane, sleeping peacefully, her face traced thoughlessly by the moonlight glowing through the window at her back.

Silently cursing Paddy Doyle, she studied the statuesque features that she'd come to love so much. Jane, unknowingly, moaned in her sleep and shuffled closer to the other woman and slung a willowy arm across Maura's chest.

Maura moved into the touch. She couldn't help it. It was all she could do to keep from falling back into the darkness.

She settled into folds of Jane's curly hair and fell asleep.

* * *

The phone rang.

"Hello," he answered in a voice thick with sleep and telephone static.

"Is this Special Agent Timothy McGee, of NCIS?"

Tim checked his watch. Impressed with the hour, he answered, "Yea, who's this?"

There was a heavy pause. "This is Sargeant Vincent Korsack, Boston Police, Homicide Department. There's been an incident-"

"IS JADE ALRIGHT?!" he shouted into the reciever, no longer asleep.

"Sir, calm down. Your daughter is fine, but...her friend, a Ms. Daryl DiNozzo, was injured very badly."

The breath caught in the back of his throat, literally choking him on the words. "Is...is she alright?"

On the other end, Sargeant Korsack cleared his throat. "She was raped. The guy who did it has the same M.O. as a creep we've been after for the past year. Her phone is completely destroyed, sir. Your daughter gave us your number, but she didn't have one for Ms. DiNozzo's family."

Time slowed as Tim sat down on his bed and gave Korsack Tony DiNozzo's cell number.

* * *

Typically, Ziva's driving was not something Tony sought out. But now, his wife's speed-demonry wasn't nearly enough to get Tony to Boston fast enough. He wished he could grow wings and fly to his daughter's side. Their young son, Aaron cried out from the back seat, grasping toward his mother for sustenance. She shushed the baby, and pushed the gas pedal closer to the floor.

this chapter is particularly short because i have to go babysit now and i don't know when i'll next see a computer :P PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!


	3. Awake

Sorry about the lack of recent updates. A. P. testing for APUSH is in two days. So, here's a bit of a hoorah before I have to endure that…

Boston

~Daryl's point of view~

Whoa…my head… The sound of blood rushing through my ears is the first thing I notice upon my waking up. No more… The next things I notice are the tubes. One is in my nose, bringing oxygen to my starved brain. Another is connected to a bag of blood at one end. The other end was in my arm. That made me a bit queasier. Another tube on the needle is connected to a bag of saline solution, and a morphine drip. Yummy.

There's something fuzzy on my left hand, and I adjust myself awkwardly to glance up at what in the world this could possibly be. It's a mass of ginger hair, connected to the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, my girlfriend, Jade. She's passed out, sleeping on my arm like a sad, tired, cat.

This morphine is some good stuff…

~end pov~

Tony gazed up at the ceiling, having awoken in a rather unceremonious fashion by a tall, raven haired woman in a blue t shirt and black jeans.

"Can I help you?" he asked, rubbing his eyes groggily.

The woman nodded and told him she was Detective Rizzoli, from Boston P. D. and that she had some questions for his daughter. He began to nod, when an impeccably dressed blonde stumbled into the room. She appeared to be wiping at something on one of the teal flowers on her white dress.

"Jane, you've ruined my Armani!" she said. Her presence startled Agent DiNozzo. He jumped, clutching his hair and staring at the spitting image of his dead wife, Kate.

~~~that was waaaaaaaaaay too short, but I'm going to go watch tv and study. I promise that once school's out, I'll be posted a lot more.


	4. Her Eyes

WHOOT! SO glad to be done with my junior year. I just hope that I've passed in all of my classes...

*Gibbs on voice over* LAST TIME, ON NCIS...

Daryl walked as if in slow motion to a park bench perfectly placed on the path ahead. She went to sit, but as she turned, a large black gloved hand grabbed her entire face. Any happy thoughts she had turned to pure fear as her vision slowly faded to black, and she could hear and see no more.

_I am going to die._

The black gloved body ripped her dress down over her back and leaned down over her nefariously...he grunted as he released into her...

~present~

Jade McGee weeps helplessly, her back against a vending machine. _If only I had stayed with her..._ Hot tears pool on the bridge of her nose, but she doesn't move to wipe them away. They run down her long nose, and drip into her lap with a pathetic _thap. Thap. Thap._

Tony watches her from the waiting room door. He couldn't put himself in her shoes. He had no idea what she was feeling. This was something that he'd learned from years of working at NCIS: he didn't know how the victim felt. He did know, however, how he felt on that rooftop, all those years ago, as he watched helplessly his wife, his one true love, fall limply to the floor...the round bullet hole that had appeared, as if by magic, in the center of her forehead...the look of distress on his children's faces when he told them...mommy wouldn't be coming home...and the distress...as every day his only daughter grew to look exactly like her. And now...

A thin tear struggled to break free of his eye and waver down his cheek exhaustedly...now there were two, two that had the same heart shaped face, two that had the long, thin nose...two of the same face, the same voice, that he'd lost long ago.

He'd been speechless when first he met Dr. Maura Isles. It appeared as though her partner, Detective Rizzoli, was just as surprised to see Daryl, broken and bruised in the hospital bed. "What...who...?" the detective had stuttered, her eyes moving from Daryl to Dr. Isles.

Dr. Isles seemed oblivious to the source of Rizzoli's and DiNozzo's shock. "You must be Special Agent DiNozzo. I'm Doctor Maura Isles. We're sorry about what happened to your daughter." As she spoke, she moved closer to DiNozzo, looking into his deep brown eyes earnestly, as she had been taught to do by her psychiatrist. This was too much for Agent DiNozzo. Kate's hazel eyes were the only piece of her mother that Daryl DiNozzo hadn't inherited, instead sporting an exact copy of her father's chocolate brown ones. It was the only thing that kept Tony from losing it sometimes.

Now, seeing her eyes beautifully alive in the doctor, his breath caught in his chest, and he left the room as quickly as he possibly could.

Now, he watched as Jade, the daughter of his two best friends, felt the pain all over again. He moved to turn away, but a glint of silver caught his eye. A little red velvet box sat next to her, open to reveal a silver band with a large, round opal glistening sadly beside her. He didn't notice her eyes move to him, and she stood quickly, and picked up the scarlet box.

"She was going to propose..." Jade said. Her voice was thick and throaty, that of a woman who'd never heard her own voice. Passerby would assume that Jade had been crying for hours, and even though this was true, Jade had been deaf since birth. She pressed her nose into Tony's chest, and breathed in his scent, that of leather and cologne and fabric softener. Tony cupped her head in his hand, and kissed her forehead with fatherly tenderness. "She was going to propose..." Jade repeated, as though this were her mantra. "And," she gulped, pulling away from Tony, "and I probably would have said 'no'..."


	5. Chapter 5

Oh, goodness…620 views? I take this as a compliment, and for the first time in my time here on , feel the need to apologize for my tardiness (I swear I must be Canadian…). Anyway, to make it up, here's an extra-long chapter, in which, I plan to focus less on Daryl, more on Rizzles. THANKYOUPEOPLES‼!

* * *

The rhythmic tapping of Maura Isles' fingers on her keyboard greets Jane as she enters the morgue, the cold staccato song bouncing off of the slick metal surfaces. From her friend's posture, it is obvious that something is bothering the Queen of the Dead tonight…

"Maura," Jane announces, calling her presence to the other woman's attention. "What's all this…who's 'Caitlin Todd'?" She reads the name and an obituary from over Maura's shoulder. A striking photograph of a young woman with straight black hair and piercing hazel eyes watches the two from the monitor. "Maur…"

Dr. Isles wheels back, moving carefully to show Jane something in her hand. "Agent DiNozzo…gave me this…it's a picture of his late wife, Kate." The young woman on the monitor is slightly older, with three small children on her lap. "Those are their kids," she points to the smallest child, a little girl, "that's Daryl."

Jane nods, unsure of where this conversation is leading, but she allows her friend to continue her story. "Look at her! I've run this over and over in my head, and every time I draw the same conclusion!"

"Which is…?" Jane raises her eyebrows at her friend, as though to say "continue".

Maura takes a deep, rattled breath. "Caitlin Todd had to have been genetically identical to me. Look, even our bodily proportions are the same! The glabella is exactly the same size on both of us!"

"Your what's are what-now?"

Maura rolls her eyes. "The space between the eyes, it's the only facial feature that cannot be surgically altered, and it is usually different person to person. But, look!" she proceeds to superimpose a photograph of herself over the picture of Kate Todd-DiNozzo, and as if by magic, their features line up perfectly. "Don't you see, Jane…Paddy is lying to me, and so is Hope! I had an identical twin!"

Jane stops. "Maybe you should ask them before you jump to this conclusion."

Maura sighs. "I know, but don't you think they'd just lie to me again?" She rubs her temples, as though she'd just been delivered her final twenty four hours.

Jane thinks for a moment. "Ask Constance?"

Her friend's head slips from between her hands and onto the table with a slight thud. "She isn't answering her phone…"

Another moment passes silently before Jane speaks up again. "Do you think Daryl would agree to a DNA test? If it's true, and her mother is your identical twin, wouldn't the test show that you were her mother?"

The doctor's head rises and she gleams at Jane happily. "You're right! Why didn't I think of that?"

* * *

Harold Shawl glares over his handcuffed wrists as two detectives stare right back at him, one with contempt, and the other with mild interest. He snorts, and glances down at his shackles. "You ever wonder why they call them 'handcuffs' and not 'wrist cuffs'?" he chuckles icily at his own joke as the two detectives fail to respond.

The female detective, a tall, thin piece of ass sits as though trying to seduce him, peering through heavily hooded brown eyes. "That's a nice bruise you got there, Harry." She grazes the side of his face with a thin finger, indicating the brilliant black eye that obscured most of the left portion of his face. He snickers. "Won it at the fair, baby. You like?"

The other detective, a young black man, leans over the table and pushes a photograph at Harry. "I think it was a parting gift from your last attack." The photographs are of a battered and bloody young woman, her thick black hair curling sadly over the pavement that her head is lying on. A second photograph is of another young woman, in a similar position, as are several more photographs, all depicting women of the same physical description in the same condition; all dead. The final photograph that the black detective slides over the table is of a young woman in a hospital bed, wires and tubes obscuring her face, but her thick black hair is visible through the mess. "I bet you regret her, eh, Harry? Her name is Daryl. Do you remember her? Or how about her?" Another picture, this one of a thin girl with auburn hair and freckles…and bruised knuckles, is passed toward him. Harry curls his thick fingers into fists, an obvious rage bubbling.

"Oh, I thought you'd recognise her," says the lady detective, looking pleased with herself. "She's the one who gave you that," she gestures to his swollen eye, "isn't she, Harry?"

He snarls, the corners of his mouth turning up into a frightening smile that makes the detectives' skin crawl. "That little dyke, trying to save her fuck buddy? Yea, she gave me this," he rubs his hairy cheek with pride. "My only regret is not killing both of 'em. But as you can see, ginger here," he gestures menacingly, "ain't quite my type."

"Why'd you do it, Shawl?" the lady detective's seductive tone is now one of repressed anger. He knows he's got her.

"So she'd know what she was missing. You a fan of the sausage, detective?"

* * *

Maura shifts her weight from foot to foot as she waits patiently at the brown wooden door. The room number has peeled away with age. She traces the empty space with gentle fingers: 501-B.

After a few seconds, the door swings open, a young man of about twenty seven, thick black hair falling over his eyes the one opening it. "Can I help you?"

"Um, I'm here for Daryl DiNozzo, perhaps you know her…?"

The young man cuts her off. "Daryl isn't up to visitors right now. I don't know if you've heard about what's been going on right now but-."

"I'm Dr. Maura Isles, the chief medical examiner for the common wealth of Massachusetts. I need to speak to Ms. DiNozzo."

The young man gulps, and nods, stepping back to allow Maura entry to the shabby condo. "I'll go get her," he says, before disappearing behind a partition curtain. Maura moves around the room slowly, noticing several large movie posters decorating the walls. She reads them to herself, "_Die Hard_, _Steel Magnolias_, and_ Indiana Jones_… all of the _Indiana Jones_ movies…"

"We really like movies," says a hoarse voice from somewhere behind. Maura turns to see Daryl limping toward her.

"Ms. DiNozzo, I'm glad to see that you're recovering."

Daryl nods, and Maura notes the thick bags that have formed beneath her eyes, the thin wheezing breaths she takes. As the young woman moves closer, the doctor is able to see, also, that she has grown thin and emaciated. "Can I help you?"

Maura thinks for a moment on what to say. "I was wondering if you knew…whether your mother was adopted."

"Yea, she'd mentioned it once or twice. Said something about a sister, but that her parents couldn't afford both of them."

Maura is taken aback for a moment, but presses on. "I hope you don't mind, but I was wondering if you were willing to take a blood test…"


End file.
